With the weather being so nice, you most likely have a watermelon or two around. Your first through may be, why on earth would I waste a perfectly good watermelon to make ice pops? I’m with you. It’s hard to beat plain old, icy cold watermelon simply cut into slices or cubes. Justifying blending a melon up to freeze seems iffy.

However, trust me, a few batches of watermelon ice pops over the summer will be 100% worth it. Freezing watermelon takes refreshing to a whole new level. Once frozen, watermelon ice pops have this amazing shaved ice texture and really cool you off.

Watermelon ice pops are also a great way to use leftover melon – say, if you bought too much for a picnic.

Nutritionally worth it

These ice pops are low-calorie but taste insanely good – so if you’re attempting to trim calories, these pops are the perfect way to go. You can eat more than one, because a cup of watermelon only has about 45 calories.

Watermelon manages to be low-calorie and nutritious, with plenty of good stuff, such as lycopene, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C and potassium.

3/4 cup fresh squeezed organic orange juice – optional, but recommended. You could use the pulp – blend it up, but I just use the juice, because I don’t want to mess with the smooth, shaved ice texture of the watermelon. You can save the pulp in puree form and use it in place of some of the milk in cornbread (trust me, it’s amazing).

How many ice pops will you get?

It depends on the size of your melon. For my last batch, I used a blender full of watermelon, as shown above. After adding orange juice and the water, I got enough mix to make all the watermelon pops shown below (about 5 big pops and 3 small ones).

However, I was running low on popsicle molds, so I ended up with too much mix and not enough popsicle molds – about 1 and 1/2 cup of leftover mixture. I put it in the fridge to use to make more pops later or for a plain old drink or watermelon smoothie.

Spice your ice pops up…

Optional – if your melon is a little mealy and less sweet, you may want to add a tablespoon of organic honey, but a nice sweet melon won’t need any added sweetener.

Optional – sparkling water or soda. If you go with soda, use organic like Santa Cruz Organic Sparkling Beverage, Lemon Lime. Note that this will add some calories to your low-cal pops, but as a once-in-a-while treat, sparkling watermelon ice pops are amazing. If you decide to add soda, allow the can to sit open in the fridge for a few hours before making these pops.

Wonder if Michael would eat these. He hates watermelon. They look really good though. I’m all excited cause I just got a blender! I never really had room for one when I was in apartment land.

I’ve been making smoothies, but haven’t made ice pops yet. The blender is an Oster with a glass jar and mostly metal parts in the drive/motor. It has a plastic lid, but I still love that I was able to get one with a glass jar. Maybe now I won’t be so tempted to buy smoothies at Panera 🙂

If M hates watermelon, he won’t like these. They’re just like watermelon but super icy fresh. Poor guy doesn’t know what he’s missing. I can’t believe you just got a blender! That’s my most used appliance. I’ve had the same one for almost 11 years now (crazy). Lately it’s been feeling a little loose and old, so I may have to break down and get a new one. Not sure if I can find an “eco” one. Mine is glass too, but has a plastic lid (I think – it’s a little soft like silicone). Not sure if you can find them sans plastic lids, but now I’m wondering.

Jennifer,
I’ve had this KitchenAid smart stick thing that worked as a mini blender and chopper with different attachments, but not an upright one like this with a jar.

Long ago I had a blender that I received as a wedding gift, but it was cheap (Black and Decker), didn’t work well and I decided to lose it along with the crock pot when I moved into a smaller apartment a few years back. I wasn’t using it, so it seemed silly to keep it. Are crock pots eco friendly anyway? I’ve no idea. They’ve always made me nervous anyhow.